Having been fortunate enough to witness Killswitch Engage in their first few months of existence, it is always impressive to us to see how far the band has gone over the years. One of the most respected Metalcore band around, they manage to remain fresh, while sticking to their tried and true formula.
We met with bassist Mike D’Antonio before their set at Heavy Montreal and immediately hit it off, speaking the same New York Hardcore language!
Head over to killswitchengage.com to pre-order their new record Atonement, out August 16th, on Metal Blade Records.
Can you list your top 5 records of all time?
For me, it’s always been New York Hardcore. I love MADBALL, AGNOSTIC FRONT, CRO-MAGS, LEEWAY. Any of that stuff. JUDGE. Those are all my favorites growing up. Still to this day, I love that stuff. As far as bands that were instrumental in my development, of how to play and writing music, Cro-Mags are number one, specifically Best Wishes. Wow, that record did a lot for me. As far as just figuring out exactly what I wanted to do with my life. It was like “wow, okay, Metal and Hardcore. Pretty fucking cool.” Leeway, Desperate Measures is a pretty rad record. Any Agnostic Front record, any Madball record. Then Judge, Bringing It Down. Pretty rad. Iconic.
What have you been listening to the most lately?
Lately, I listened to his band called HE IS LEGEND. They’re out of Virginia. They just combine so many different genres together. I don’t know if you guys have heard of them but wow. It’s Metal and Rock and Pop and Sludge and Southern Rock and…’20’s jazz? *Hahaha* Some of the weirdest stuff but it all seems to fit together. We toured with them, I think in 2015 and I started watching ’em from the side of the stage and I was commanded to watch them every single day after that first time I saw them because they were just that damn good. I’m not even sure the crowd liked them at all but I fell in love with it and could not miss it. That’s how much I love that.
So you actually discovered them live, that way?
I discovered them by being on tour, went into the back catalogue, found out Adam (Dutkiewicz, KSE’s guitarist) actually produced one of their records. Ever since then, they’ve been topping themselves with release, release, release and they just put a new one out that is just phenomenal. I recommend it highly.
What would you say is the record you’ve listened to the most in your life?
Probably Best Wishes I would say. I studied that record.
More than the Age of Quarrel? Or Alpha Omega for the matter?
I did. I definitely like it better than Alpha Omega. Age of Quarrel does not have one bad song on it and for that timeframe of that lineup, that’s the best. That was phenomenal. I do love Harley’s vocals, as overemphasized and a little bit more theatrical than the first record. I get into it man. I don’t know, something about the raspiness. I feel the emotion that he’s throwing through that microphone. And the riffs!? God. I usually fall in love with riffs before I fall in love with bands and that has so many good ones.
What would be your top 5 heaviest bands of all time?
EYEHATEGOD is number one for sure. CROWBAR would be number two. Now I got to actually think but right off the bat, I know that those are my top two.
Is there a song or record that pops in your head when you say that?
It’s really hard to remember EYEHATEGOD song titles. I think there’s one called Sister fucker that is really good. And then, White n-word is really good.
Let’s see what else…This band HE IS LEGEND, anything off of Suck Out the Poison, which is their most Southern Rock, most heavy record. Their second record. Good God! Prepare yourself and hold on to something because the earth is going to move! What about you guys? Let me get some ideas. *Hahaha*
I don’t know, OBITUARY have some pretty heavy riffs.
What about Season in the Abyss (SLAYER)? The intro to that is pretty heavy man!
We actually did a piece about this a few months ago, The hardest song of all time. Ben’s pick was Justice replaced by revenge, by RINGWORM. Cedric’s was When tigers fight, by ALONE IN A CROWD. It took us weeks to figure out so we fully know that this is very hard to answer on the spot!
‘Cause you know I’m gonna leave here and be like “Ahhh, fuckin’ NEUROSIS and a million more”. But yeah, definitely Neurosis would be on there, Souls at Zero, or maybe Enemy of the Sun. Those two records are super duper heavy.
Can you name some of the most memorable shows you’ve seen? What made them stand out for you?
Sure. The first show I ever went to was SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, a week after Join the Army came out. The WRECKING CREW was playing that show as well. It was in Boston at a place called the Channel. One of the best Boston venues. The sound was incredible. It since got turned into a strip club and then knocked down but as a childhood place that I would go, the Channel was my favorite. That show made such an impression on me that I started going to shows weekly after that. I just loved the feel of the whole thing and just my first sight of a mosh pit and the energy that kind of revolves around that. Getting excited and pushing on people and seeing the reaction and not getting knocked out. I fell in love with that whole thing.
The first time I ever saw EYEHATEGOD was at TT the Bears in Boston and it was the heaviest thing I’d ever seen in my entire life. I felt like I was grinding my teeth and pieces of teeth were shooting out of my mouth, because I was having so much fun. I had to stop myself ’cause my jaw started hurting, I was grinding my teeth. That was pretty sick. I think BUZZOV•EN played that one too. Two pretty heavy bands.
I saw NEUROSIS in Connecticut at the Tune-in on the end the tail end of the Souls at Zero tour with Buzzov•en and that was stellar. One of the heaviest things. They were still hanging a curtain in the background and showing their video on top of them and on top of the curtain and it made their faces turn weird colors and it almost looks like zombies playing. Really neat if you’re on acid! *Haha*
We played with the CRO-MAGS and the BAD BRAINS, who were called the Soul brains at the time because of a record contract, at the Worcester Palladium. It was Harley and John Joseph, the last time they actually got together, between ’05 and ’07. Doug Holland was playing with them too and boy, oh boy. Fueled with energy. Harley barely played his bass because he was just flying all over the place. He’d to from one side of the stage to the other in a matter of seconds. I don’t know how he could keep it up but it was fun to watch. Really fun. Then there’s another Cro-Mags show that I’m going to throw on the list. When I saw the Revenge tour. Paris, Harley, Rocky George, upstairs at the Palladium so it’s actually a smaller, more close knit maybe like 500 cap. I can’t even say how great. The setlist was amazing.
Was it with EARTH CRISIS? They played together in Montreal on that tour.
Pretty good, right? But no, it wasn’t with Earth Crisis. Nice guys though. I like those dudes a lot. I was in a Hardcore band called OVERCAST, way back in the day, and we could not get a show in Syracuse for the life of us because we were just too Metal, too many breakdowns. Too Metal for the scene, stay out of our scene. Earth Crisis said, we want Overcast to play this benefit show and if they don’t play, we’re not playing. That was the coolest thing. No one stood up for us back then, except for them. They were straight edge guys, we were drinkers, we smoked, we did every drug on the planet and they liked us for what we were and they set aside differences of opinion. That warms my heart every time I think about that exact scenario.
Do you have an artist that you love in a genre that you don’t usually listen to? What makes them stand out?
Yeah, I’m not a particularly big Rap guy at all but when I was a kid, breakdancing was a big deal. In fifth grade or whatever, I’m 46, that was a while ago. I loved RUN DMC and PUBLIC ENEMY, those were my two favorites. What Rap turned into kind of like soured my taste on the whole thing, but the first three Run DMC records and the first three Public Enemy’s are like still solid in my opinion.
Do you have any favorite Syracuse Hardcore bands from that era?
Yeah! GOD BELOW! I love those dudes, they are amazing. Super duper heavy. SANTA SANGRE. Our old buddy Tom Dice used to play for both those bands and he went on to like tour manage Killswitch in the beginning and then he was our only roadie for a long time. He used to carry a briefcase around because no one would take him serious as our tour manager. **Haha** And he’s open up the briefcase and it was all fucking candy in there! **Hahahaha** No pens, no paper, just fucking candy.
Can you name three songs that you consider to be perfect and explain why or what makes them so special to you?
Hum. Sometimes they ruin songs by throwing one riff in and you’re like, “what is that for in there?” Age of quarrel by the CRO-MAGS, the last song on Best Wishes, I think, at least that intro, is perfection. Hard times by the CRO-mags is probably the most perfect, impactful, emotional song you can get. There’s gotta be a BAD BRAINS song in there. Let’s say Right Brigade probably. Super duper fun one, if you want to just like bug out and get a smile on your face.
Do you have any unpopular music opinion that you would like to defend?
I got one. I love Bad Brains’ Quickness. People get down on that one as being too metal. Fucking Mackie played on that record, how can you go wrong? The drumbeats are so amazing. Bad Brains. Quickness.
We’re actually on tour with Cro-Mags JM at the moment and those guys were on stage the other day so I went up to AJ (Novello, guitarist for LEEWAY who now plays for Cro-Mags JM) and I was like, “oh, man, I noticed you guys are playing some Alpha Omega stuff when you sound check, how come you don’t play them live?” He said that Mackie didn’t play on those records so he doesn’t want to do that stuff. I was like, “well go and play Quickness right now then!” He said okay and he ran. They didn’t play it but I almost got them to.
In closing, do you have any projects that you would like to talk about?
Yes, I have a Hardcore band called DEATH RAY VISION. We just play local shows right now. We got a record out called Negative Mental Attitude and it’s kinda tongue in cheek. We’re the skinniest, fat dudes and it’s just all about fighting and beating down people. It’s just the dumbest. It’s supposed to be tough guy but the joke is that we’re not tough at all. We just have a lot of fun with the band. Check it out. You might like it. It’s heavy. Pete Cortese from Overcast plays in it too.
No Comments